CHINA MILITARY BEGINS NEW DRILLS; TAIWAN SET TO COUNTER THEM

A day after concluding unprecedented live-fire drills that effectively blockaded the waters and skies in six regions surrounding Taiwan, China’s military began new exercises and training activities that analysts said indicated a new normal in military presence in the Taiwan Strait.

On Monday, the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command, which had carried out the four-day live-firing drills from Thursday until Sunday, said in a brief statement it had continued to conduct “realistic combat-oriented joint exercises and training” in the waters and airspace around Taiwan “focusing on organising joint anti-submarine and sea assault operations”.

It did not say when the new drills would conclude.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence on Monday said it had tracked 13 PLA Navy vessels and 39 aircraft on Monday, of which 21 aircraft had again crossed the median. The Communist Party-run Global Times said this week’s new exercises “further practised seizing the control of the sea with anti-submarine drills”.

“Monday’s exercises mean that the PLA has extended its drills surrounding the island of Taiwan, which were originally scheduled to conclude on Sunday noon,” the newspaper said, quoting military analyst Song Zhongping as saying “as long as the Taiwan question is not solved, drills like these will not stop”.

Meanwhile, Taiwan will hold livefire military drills this week simulating a defence of the island against a Chinese invasion, officials said on Monday, as Beijing carries out fresh exercises around its neighbour. The island’s forces will hold anti-landing exercises in the southernmost county of Pingtung on Tuesday and Thursday, the Taiwanese army said. “We will practise counter moves against simulated enemy attacks on Taiwan,” Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for the Eighth Army Corps, said. They will include the deployment of hundreds of troops and about 40 howitzer guns, the army said.Lou said the Taiwanese drills were already scheduled and were not being held in response to China's exercises. The island routinely stages military drills simulating a Chinese invasion and last month practised repelling attacks from the sea in a "joint interception operation" as part of its largest annual exercises.

KREMLIN ACCUSES UKRAINE OF SHELLING ATOMIC POWER PLANT

The Kremlin on Monday accused Ukrainian forces of firing on the Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant, warning of potential “catastrophic consequences” for Europe.

“The shelling of the territory of the nuclear plant by the Ukrainian armed forces is a potentially extremely dangerous activity... fraught with catastrophic consequences for a vast area, including the territory of Europe,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He called on Ukraine’s allies “to use their influence to prevent the continuation of such shelling”.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday that the Ukrainian Army damaged a high-voltage power line that provides electricity to nearby regions.

The Ministry added that a “power surge” took place at the station, causing smoke in a switchgear, used to protect electrical equipment.

Firefighters at the scene were able to stop the smoke, the Ministry said.

Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for strikes on the atomic power plant, where recent fighting sparked a UN atomic agency warning of a potential nuclear disaster.

The White House called on Russia on Monday to cease all military operations around nuclear facilities in Ukraine.

U.S. SENATE ADOPTS CLIMATE, HEALTH BILL

After 18 months of arduous negotiations and a marathon night of debate, the U.S. Senate on Sunday passed Joe Biden’s ambitious climate, tax and health care plan — a significant victory for the President ahead of crucial midterm elections.

Voting as a unified bloc and with the tie-breaking vote cast by Vice-President Kamala Harris, Democrats approved the $430-billion spending plan, which will go to the House of Representatives next week, where it is expected to pass before being signed into law by Mr. Biden. The plan, crafted in sensitive talks with members on the right wing of his Democratic Party, would include the biggest U.S. investment ever on climate — $370 billion aimed at effecting a 40% drop in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

That would give Mr. Biden a clear victory on one of his top agenda items and go some way toward restoring U.S. leadership in meeting the global climate challenge.

“It required many compromises. Doing important things almost always does. The House should pass this as soon as possible and I look forward to signing it into law,” the President said in a statement.

The Bill — officially known as the “Inflation Reduction Act” — passed the Senate with no Republicans voting in favour.

Conservative lawmakers have criticised the Bill as wasteful spending, with top Republican Senator Mitch McConnell accusing Democrats of voting to “double down on their economic disaster.”

EU RELEASES ‘FINAL TEXT’ AFTER IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS

Talks to revive Tehran’s tattered nuclear accord with world powers in Vienna ended on Monday as the parties closed a final text and key negotiators prepared to consult with their capitals, diplomats said.

After 16 months of torturous on-and-off indirect negotiations to restore the deal, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell suggested there was no more room for negotiation on the draft now on the table.

A final decision on whether the most significant non-proliferation pact in the last quarter century can be restored rests with the Iranian and American governments, he signalled. The 2015 nuclear deal granted Iran sanctions relief in exchange for tight curbs on its atomic program.

“What can be negotiated has been negotiated, and it’s now in a final text,” Mr. Borrell wrote on Twitter. “However, behind every technical issue and every paragraph lies a political decision that needs to be taken in the capitals.”

Key challenges to closing the deal remain. European officials over the weekend urged Iran to drop its “unrealistic demands” outside the scope of the original agreement, including over an International Atomic Energy Agency probe into undeclared nuclear material found in the country.

Iran’s chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, will shortly fly back to Tehran for political consultations, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said.

The U.S., which abandoned the original deal four years ago under former President Donald Trump, described the tabled draft as “the best and only basis on which to reach a deal.”

CEASEFIRE BETWEEN ISRAEL, MILITANTS TAKES EFFECT IN GAZA

A ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants took effect late on Sunday in a bid to end nearly three days of violence that killed dozens of Palestinians and disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis.

The flare-up was the worst fighting between Israel and Gaza militant groups since Israel and Hamas fought an 11-day war last year, and adds to the destruction and misery that have plagued blockaded Gaza for years.

The Egyptian-brokered cease-fire took effect at 11:30 p.m. (2030 GMT). Israeli strikes and militant rockets continued in the minutes leading up to the beginning of the truce, and Israel said it would “respond strongly” if the ceasefire was violated.

Israeli aircraft have pummeled targets in Gaza since Friday, while the Iran-backed Palestinian Jihad militant group has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in response. The risk of the cross-border fighting turning into a full-fledged war remained as long as no truce was reached. Israel said some of the dead were killed by misfired rockets.

Gaza’s ruling Hamas group remained on the sidelines, possibly because it fears Israeli reprisals and undoing economic understandings with Israel that bolster its control.

MYANMAR ENVOY TO CHINA DEAD

Myanmar’s Ambassador to China died suddenly on Sunday in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, according to a media report and diplomatic sources in Beijing.

The obituary for Ambassador U Myo Thant Pe by Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry in a state newspaper on Monday did not specify his cause of death.

Diplomats in Beijing and a Chinese language Myanmar media report said the cause was likely to be a heart attack.

He was the fourth Ambassador to die in China in the past year.

TOP TTP COMMANDER OMAR KHALID KHORASANI, 3 OTHERS KILLED IN MYSTERIOUS BLAST IN AFGHANISTAN: REPORT

A top commander of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Omar Khalid Khorasani and three other top militant leaders have been killed in a mysterious blast in eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province, a Pakistani media report said on Monday.

A vehicle carrying senior commanders of the militant group, including Khorasani, was on Sunday targeted with a mysterious explosive device, according to Afghan officials and local sources, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

The militants were travelling in the Birmal district of the province for a meeting when their vehicle hit a roadside mine, the report said.

All aboard the vehicle, also carrying other TTP commanders- Abdul Wali Mohmand, Mufti Hassan, and Hafiz Dawlat Khan, were killed in the explosion, The Express Tribune quoted a senior Afghan official as saying.

The TTP is yet to confirm these targeted killings of its top commanders, an incident that would certainly undermine the Afghan Taliban-brokered peace negotiations between the TTP and the Pakistan government.

The news comes after the outlawed group and Pakistan reached a deadlock during their talks as the outfit refused to budge from its demand for the reversal of the merger of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, the report said.

US DOCTOR ISSUES WARNING OF MANY UNDIAGNOSED POLIO CASES

A health official in New York State has told the BBC there could be hundreds or even thousands of undiagnosed cases of polio there.

It follows an announcement last month that an unvaccinated man had been paralysed by the virus in Rockland County, New York.

His case has been linked genetically to traces of polio virus found in sewage in London and Jerusalem.

Developed countries have been warned to boost vaccination rates.

Dr Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, health commissioner for Rockland County, said she was worried about polio circulating in her state undetected.

"There isn't just one case of polio if you see a paralytic case. The incidence of paralytic polio is less than 1%," she said.

"Most cases are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and those symptoms are often missed.

"So there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of cases that have occurred in order for us to see a paralytic case."

Dr Ruppert confirmed that scientists are looking at "a linkage" between the New York paralysis case and traces of poliovirus found in wastewater in London and Jerusalem, after genome sequencing was conducted on samples from the three locations.

"This is a very serious issue for our global world - it's not just about New York. We all need to make sure all our populations are properly vaccinated," she said.